Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Chapter 10 is done

Today was a good day for writing. Eight pages good. My change in page count doesn't quite reflect all that I did, since a fair portion of my new content was replacing old content (about two pages' worth), but I'm very pleased. My new strategy of just getting my first draft down -- of not sweating the small stuff until a rewrite -- is going pretty well.

Of course, some self-editing must necessarily sneak in. When I first started chapter ten tonight, I wrote 3/4 of a page before stopping. This is all telling, I realized. I made myself go back and rewrite that content through showing instead of telling, and the result was about two pages of dialogue/exposition mix instead -- and it was vastly stronger. I may not be an expert yet, but I'm catching on!

Now, if only I can keep up a relatively fast pace and get through the dreaded first draft sometime in the next month or two, I can move on to the fun business of revisions. I believe this is the opposite attitude of most writers, who seem to prefer the first draft to revisions, but that's how it goes. Oddly, my backhand is much stronger than my forehand in tennis, too, which is also backwards.

Now that was a non sequitur.

The stats as of today:-48,750 estimated words.-57,356 actual words.-Ten and a portion fully-revised-and-expanded chapters (163 pages total).-195 pages in all.-Song(s) listened to while writing: Soundtracks to all three Lord of the Rings movies, Meet The Robinsons, K-PAX, and the Bourne Supremacy.

I'm also very glad to hear that you're getting into the revisions, too. In a lot of ways it is easier when you are just improving what is already there (with a few new bits here and there), rather than having to create everything from scratch.

I didn't know you were a tennis player, by the way. I don't play much anymore, but when I was in school that took up almost every afternoon (in truth, I think that kind of burned me out, which is why I don't play as much anymore).